Ezekiel 26
BSASBTyre, the proud merchant city on the Phoenician coast, gloated when Jerusalem fell, hoping to profit from her rival’s ruin. God answers with a judgment that comes in waves, through Nebuchadnezzar and then through many nations. Tyre’s songs will stop, her fellow kings will mourn, and she will go down to the Pit.
Ezekiel 26:1
Ezekiel dates this word to the twelfth year of the exile, around the time Jerusalem was falling. God speaks about Tyre just as His own people’s city is being broken. Nothing in the nations’ history escapes His word.
BSA: word (“a message or declaration”): What follows is not Ezekiel’s opinion but a declaration from God, which will stand.
Ezekiel 26:2
Tyre’s sin is gloating. Jerusalem controlled the trade roads, and Tyre saw her fall as an opening for her own gain. Delighting in another’s disaster, and calculating how to profit from it, is something God takes personally.
BSA: ruins (“is laid waste, desolate”): Tyre looked at a devastated city and saw only an opportunity. filled (“replenished, made complete”): Tyre expected Jerusalem’s loss to make her richer and more complete.
Hebrew: נִשְׁבְּרָה (nishberah, H7665) — “has been shattered.” The word means smashed to pieces, like a broken pot. Tyre cheers at the sound of the breaking, not seeing that the same God can shatter her.
See also: Proverbs 24:17; Obadiah 1:12.
Ezekiel 26:3
God declares Himself Tyre’s opponent. Her attackers will come like the sea’s waves, one after another. Tyre, queen of the sea, will be overwhelmed by something that behaves like the sea itself.
BSA: against (“in opposition to you”): The Lord Himself stands opposed to Tyre, which is far more serious than any human enemy.
Ezekiel 26:4
The city’s walls and towers, her pride and security, will fall. God says He will scrape her bare until only a smooth rock is left. The picture is of a once-proud city stripped of everything it was built on.
Hebrew: סֶלַע (sela, H5553) — “rock, crag.” Tyre’s name itself is related to the Hebrew word for rock. Her name becomes a mocking picture of what she will be: bare stone.
Ezekiel 26:5-6
Tyre will become a drying place for fishermen’s nets, a humble end for a great trading power. The mainland settlements, called her daughters, will fall to the sword. The aim is that people will know that He is the LORD.
BSA: mainland (“in the field, the open country”): These are the farming settlements on the coast that fed and supported the island city.
Hebrew: מִשְׁטָח (mishtach, H4894) — “a spreading-place.” The Hebrew names the spot by its use, a place where nets are laid out to dry. The great harbor becomes a fisherman’s drying ground.
See also: Ezekiel 6:7.
Ezekiel 26:7
God now names the instrument: Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who comes down from the north with a huge army. Though he is called king of kings, he is only a tool in the hands of the One who brings him.
BSA: king of kings (“the supreme ruler”): Nebuchadnezzar held great power, yet the verse says the LORD is the one bringing him.
See also: Daniel 2:37.
Ezekiel 26:8-9
The attack is described step by step: villages struck first, then siege works, a ramp against the walls, shields raised, battering rams, and axes. Ancient sieges were slow and methodical. God spells it out so that none of it can be called chance.
BSA: ramp (“mound, earthwork”): The besiegers pile up earth against the wall so their soldiers can reach the top.
Ezekiel 26:10-11
The scene grows loud and crushing: dust clouds, shaking walls, hooves in the streets, and people cut down. The mighty pillars fall with them. Everything Tyre trusted in, her strength and her monuments, goes to the ground.
BSA: trample (“tread down, violently abuse”): The horses crush the city’s streets underfoot, a picture of complete overrunning.
Ezekiel 26:12
Tyre’s wealth and trade goods are carried off, and even her houses and building stones are thrown into the sea. Later history records that Alexander the Great used the old ruins to build a causeway to the island city. This detail shows how thoroughly the fall came.
BSA: merchandise (“goods, trade, or commerce”): Tyre’s whole identity was trade, and that is exactly what is stripped away.
Ezekiel 26:13-14
The music of Tyre’s feasts and harbors will stop. The city will become bare rock where nets are spread, never rebuilt in her old glory. God ends with the seal of His own word: I, the LORD, have spoken.
BSA: silence (“cause to cease, put an end to”): Joy and festivity come to a halt at God’s command. rebuilt (“established or repaired”): Tyre will not again be set up as the great power she was.
See also: Isaiah 24:8.
Ezekiel 26:15
The fall of Tyre will shake the whole coast, because many lands depended on her trade and protection. Wounded people groan in her streets while distant islands hear and tremble. A great fall is never private.
BSA: coastlands (“isles, habitable spots”): These are the distant lands and islands tied to Tyre by trade.
Ezekiel 26:16
The rulers of the sea, Tyre’s partners and trading allies, come down from their thrones. They take off their rich clothing, sit on the ground, and tremble. They had admired her strength and now see how easily it fell.
BSA: terror (“fear, anxiety, trembling”): They wear terror in place of their royal garments.
Hebrew: חֲרָדוֹת (charadot, H2731) — “tremblings.” The word means shaking with fear, so the princes are physically shaken, not just sad.
Ezekiel 26:17-18
The princes sing a funeral song for Tyre. She was famous, strong on the sea, and feared by all. Now the islands are dismayed. The song shows how quickly worldly greatness can become a memory.
BSA: lament (“sing a funeral song, take up a lamentation”): It is a formal funeral song, treating Tyre as already dead.
Hebrew: קִינָה (qinah, H7015) — “funeral song, dirge.” This is the Hebrew word for a mourning song. Ezekiel uses it again in chapters 27 and 28 for Tyre.
See also: Ezekiel 27:2.
Ezekiel 26:19
God speaks of the sea itself rising over Tyre. A city that ruled the waves is covered by the deep. The sea, her strength, becomes her grave.
BSA: deep (“tehom, the abyss”): This is the word for the deep waters, the abyss, seen as a power under God’s command.
Hebrew: תְּהוֹם (tehom, H8415) — “the deep, the abyss.” It is the same word used for the deep in Genesis 1:2. The chaos of the deep answers to God and comes at His call.
See also: Genesis 1:2.
Ezekiel 26:20
Tyre is sent down to the Pit, the place of the dead, among people of long ago. She will no longer live in the land of the living or be set in splendor. The proud city joins the ancient ruins she once looked down on.
BSA: Pit (“a cistern, a prison”): The grave is pictured as a deep hole from which there is no escape.
Hebrew: בּוֹר (bor, H953) — “pit, cistern.” The word is used for a dug-out pit or water cistern. In poetry it also names the grave or the place of the dead.
See also: Ezekiel 32:18.
Ezekiel 26:21
The chapter ends with Tyre made a horror and passing from memory. People may look for her and not find her. The One who spoke it is the Lord GOD, and what He declares He carries out.
BSA: horror (“a terror, thing of fear”): Tyre becomes a thing of dread, a warning to others.
Hebrew: בַּלָּהוֹת (ballahot, H1091) — “terrors, sudden horrors.” The word describes a sudden dreadful end. Tyre becomes a name people speak of with a shudder.